Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past Wirral History cinder pitch bikenhead park

i remember one day in the mid 50s watching a football match on the cinder pitch.i stood behind the goals,the goalie was having a ciggy.the other team came through with the ball.and cool as you like the goalie put the near finished ciggy next to the post the forward smashed the casy ,the goalie made a great save,then as they got ready for the corner he finished his dimp,rubbed his hands in the cinders,turned round and grinned.proper football.

Good story!

Nothing like todays players who fall over the moment someone knocks there hair out of place.

i remember the cinder pitch in the park ,it was just behind
the swings, i played on it a few times and still have the
scars on my knees to prove it

It was murder playing footy on the cinder pitch. You came home with clinkers embedded in your knees - I think I've still got some in mine 50 years later! What I could never understand was why they had a cinder pitch at all when there were acres of lovely green grass all around.

Perhaps it was the first kind of all weather pitch or maybe it was meant for athletics, the park used to get pretty boggy down there.